CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE THE RELEVANT ARTICLE

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE THE RELEVANT ARTICLE

Larry McCutcheon – God Stories Explained

Wes Spears – A long-haired Jesus in Chicago

Thony Thompson – Unexpectedly sold out for Jesus.

Rachel Cobble – A Friendship Takes an Unexpected Twist

Andrew Toney – Discovering Hope in Malaysia

Lauren Bond – Miracles and shopping

Meghan McCollum – A hand-delivered letter in Africa

Sam Smith – The Love of a Mother & Father

“Death is at your doorstep, and it will steal your innocence, but it will not steal your substance.
But you are not alone in this, and you are not alone in this. As brothers we will stand, and we’ll hold your hand.”

You are not alone in this. So, as you reflect on this past year and look forward to the new year, know that your hand is being held during your fears and dreams and through darkness and light. As brothers we will climb mountains together, and walk through valleys together. In the stillness and in the dark hear Jesus’ gentle whisper to your heart that you are not alone.

This is for those who have loved and lost

This is for those who have dreamed without heeding the cost

This is for those who have felt joy and pain

This is for those who have touched the sun and been broken by the rain

You are living a story, and this year is a new chapter

Continue to give and receive love because you matter

This is for those who have hurt themselves and others

This is for those who have been wounded by sisters and brothers

This is for those who have been hopeful and afraid

This is for those who have been trapped in the web their past has made

You are living a story, and this year is a new chapter

Continue to give and receive love because you matter

This is for those who have been walking in the dark

This is for those who have broken hearts

This is for those who have become crippled by the fight

This is for those who have been reaching out for light

You are living a story, and this year is a new chapter

Continue to give and receive love because you matter

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%203:1-8&version=ESV

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and when it doesn’t we lose

it. we scramble around looking high and low

because our world is coming to its end.

one cloud blots out the sky.

.

we question the heavens,

look to ourselves and what is found?

despair that drives us mad

and to the point of disrepair.

one cloud blots out the sky.

.

if we truly had faith,

and trusted in His word, would we

become so easily entangled?

would we say He isn’t there? would

one cloud blot out the sky?

.

one event does not remove

infinite faithfulness; one event

cannot undo. the love that has rescued

my soul, my all. and shown me

the sky anew, and its whole.

tf John 16:33

“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. ² Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. ³ But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. ⁴ It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
⁶ with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
⁷ Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”^[a]

⁸ First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. ⁹Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰ And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.(Hebrews 10:1-10)

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. ²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:24-28)”

In your celebration remember what you have waited for. Remember the days and the hours, months and years that stretched out before you seemingly endless. And remember your hope. The day is drawing near, my friends.

The day is drawing near.

Throughout the Gospel of John we have examined Jesus’ interaction with individuals in an effort to better understand the nature and character of the Love of God.  Though the encounters have been distinct and personal, there has been a common refrain—God’s love both accepts us as we are and demands that we be transformed into something more.

From the wedding to the well, from the tomb to the upper room, from the one caught in adultery to the one chastised for anointing, from the religious elite to the politically powerful…Jesus was present, patient and prophetic in the way that he loved.

As we observe him, we learn so much about The Love of God.

We see that it…

Refills the empty, Restores the broken,  Redirects the lost and  Resurrects the dead

We see that it…

Insists on fidelity,  Inspires sacrifice and informs every aspect of our lives.

In every text we hear the refrain of acceptance and demand.

John 2  Water Into Wine                                                                                                                                                     

Acceptance:  A young newly-wed couple had a wine problem.  Mary brings the problem to Jesus who asks, “what is that to me, my hour has not yet come?”  The word “hour” is an unmistakable reference in John to the appointed moment of Jesus death.  Standing at a wedding thinking about the cross.  Yet, Jesus turned 150 gallons of water into the best wine, saving a family from embarrassment AND giving his disciples a sign by which they might believe in him.  Jesus cares about the small things and saves a newly wed couple from embarrassment, yet he also gives undeniable testimony to his identity as the WORD made flesh.  The One who brings joy, festivity, celebration.

Demand:   God’s love demands FULL access to your life—both to delight and disrupt.  When the barrels ran dry and the host was in need of wine, Jesus provided.  He miraculously transformed the emptiness into fullness, the grief into gratitude—and the host was delighted by the actions of his guest, Jesus.  But in the temple, when the tables were full and greed and dishonesty crowded out the sacred, Jesus purged the place—emptying out the evil to make room for the holy—and the guests were disrupted by the actions of the host, Jesus.  The Love of God provides and purges—it delights and disrupts.  It is both and, not either or.

John 3 Nicodemus

Acceptance:  God’s love is big enough for our questions and tenacious enough for our doubts.  It is complete—apart from our own efforts and sufficient apart from our own successes.   Nicodemus, a man who had been esteemed for his intellect, praised for his success, hailed for his holiness…is faced with the reality that God’s interest in him is unaffected by any of it.  He had worked diligently to become a man of prosperity, power and piety…but Jesus said you must become poor, helpless and needy…like a baby in order to receive salvation and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Demand:  This is a difficult word for us to hear in a culture that values self-sufficiency, strength and success.   This is a difficult word for us to hear on a campus where there is so much pressure to believe and behave like a Christian—whether you are one or not. God’s love demands that we choose Christ for ourselves.  That we receive the free gift of salvation and walk in the Light.

John 4 Woman at the Well

Acceptance:  The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is shocking on multiple levels.  She was a woman, he was a man.  She was a Samaritan, he was a Jew.  She was divorced 5 times over (not entirely her fault), but still, he was a Rabbi.  The woman is shocked, the disciples are shocked, the villagers are shocked.  Jesus crosses ethnic, religious, and moral boundaries to speak God’s love to a thirsty woman.

Demand: God’s love knows the truth about us and accepts our story…but demands that we have the humility and courage to own it and tell it.  God knows we are thirsty, parched from our sin, desperate for a drink of forgiveness, dying for a swallow of salvation.  Jesus says, “drink, and thirst no more”.   Thirst no more—be ashamed no more, be silent no more, be isolated no more—drink!  Tell your story and lead others to the well of Living Water.  Extend the invitation, “Come see a man who told me everything I’d ever done”.

John 8 Woman Caught in Adultery

Acceptance:  The woman was caught.  Jesus doesn’t deny it.  The law demanded justice.  Jesus doesn’t deny it.  Yet Jesus writes in the dirt to take attention away from her shame, then calls attention to the hypocrisy of her accusers, who conveniently failed to follow the law by equally condemning her lover.  Then utters these famous words, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.”  If anyone had a right to condemn her sin, it was the sinless Christ.  Yet he did not.  He absorbed her shame and forgave her sin, ultimately taking it upon Himself and thereby satisfying the demands of the law.

Demand:  In this scene we continue to see a love that calls for compassion, not condemnation.  A love that accepts us fully as we are, but is not content to leave us in our sin.  A love that leads us to repentance, and inspires us to holiness.

God loves us enough to meet us in the dirt, to defend us to our accusers, to grant us pardon, and to command something more from us on the other side of forgiveness.  God also loves us enough to deal with our sin.  And he has, through his son Jesus Christ, made it possible for us to now go and sin no more.

John 11  Lazarus

Acceptance: Jesus wept.  He knew Lazarus was in a better place, yet he saw the tears of his friends and was deeply moved to tears himself.  A simple thing really, tears.  Yet shed from eyes of Jesus, the WORD become flesh, tears tell a tale of God’s passion for us.  He feels our pain, knows our sorrow, hurts with us, hurts because of us, and hurts for us.

Demand:  While the love of God weeps with us, mourns our losses and grieves our despair—it does not leave us in our pity.  God’s love is strong enough to resist the urge to indulge us with immediate relief so that we might know the power of resurrection.  Along with the tender tears comes profound truth, “I am the Resurrection and the Life”.

John 12  Anointing at Bethany

Acceptance: Jesus simply receives the lavish show of affection Mary displayed by pouring a year’s salary of perfume on Jesus feet.  Sure, it was costly.  Sure, the money could have been given to the poor.  Sure, he could have criticized this seemingly illogical, irrational, impulsive act of kindness.  Yet he does not.  “Leave her alone,” Jesus says, “that she may keep it for the day of my burial.”  In this way, John connects this event to the cross.  Mary’s lavish love for Jesus mirrors his lavish love for us.

Demand: If you have looked long and deep into the eyes of Christ and come to know him personally; if you are you confident in his wisdom, sure of his intentions, in tune with his holy work in the world; if you have received the miracle of his healing–the miracle of his forgiveness–the miracle of a life resurrected, then  you will be moved to live and minister in ways that will seem foolish and extravagant to the world.  You will become restless with status quo spirituality, you’ll become dissatisfied with the socially acceptable giving of 10%, and you’ll ache to pour out all that you have and all that you are in gratitude for all that HE is and all he has DONE.

God’s love is like that.  It disrupts the safe, noble, reasonable plans we make for ourselves.  It demands that we abandon our carefully calculated strategies for reaching our full potential…and compels us to abandon our own needs (for affirmation, acceptance, security, prosperity, popularity) so that we can be available to minister to the needs of Christ.  “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”  (Matthew 25:40) As we minister to the least of these, we minister to Christ.

John 13  Washing Disciples Feet

Acceptance:  Stinking, dirty, bruised, blistered, bloodied feet.  Jesus takes the position of a Gentile slave and undertakes a task that was beneath him by all common standards.  Physical, tangible, practical, everyday, simple, disgusting service – Jesus provides his disciples whom he loved so much he wanted to show that “he loved them to the end.”  Again, the cross.  Foreshadowed by feet.

Demand:  I have given you an example that you should do for one another as I have done for you.  God’s love demands that we lay aside our pride and positions of power to serve all the people in our lives—both the delightful and the difficult.

John 18  Pilate

Acceptance:  “Are you the King of the Jews,” Pilate asks.  Jesus now faced a man who had the power to set him free or condemn him to death (or so Pilate thought). Yet, Jesus’ first inclination is not to make a case on his own behalf, but instead to ask Pilate a simple question, “Is this your idea?”  Pilate, do you know who I am?  Pilate, have you given thought to what you are about to do?  Pilate, I care about you, even though you will turn me over to die.

Demand: God’s love demands that we serve ONE master.  Know what you believe and live it out…even when it comes at great cost.  We crave acceptance and affirmation from the crowd, we work to preserve our power and popularity, but Jesus asks us to abandon these pursuits for the truth.

John 21  Peter’s Denial/Restoration

Acceptance:  In chapter 21, John gives us several particular details that show all the signs of an eyewitness account.  John tells us specifically that Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John and two other disciples are together by the Sea of Tiberias.  Peter says, “let’s go fishing.”   The fish all night and catch nothing, again.  Jesus tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, and they catch more fish than they can haul.  “It is the Lord,” says the beloved disciple, and the text says “Peter put on his outer garment … and threw himself into the sea.”  Now that’s backwards.  Jesus had prepared a charcoal fire, they caught 153 fish, the nets were not torn.  They ate breakfast.  This was Jesus’ third resurrection appearance to the disciples.  Jesus and Peter had a chat.  Details, details, details.  The devil is in the details. And God is in the details.  What’s going on here?

John, writing almost 60 years after these events, seems to remember them like it was yesterday.  Why?  That’s an easy question to answer.  Where were you on 9/11?  What were you doing that day?  Where were you when you learned that planes had crashed into buildings?  You remember because of the meaning.  You will never forget because of the meaning.  John remembers because of the meaning.  First, John is reminding us that Jesus was the Word that became flesh.  The WORD in the flesh, born in the flesh and resurrected in the flesh.

Second, John is telling us something important about Peter, and about us.  Just two chapters earlier, Peter had done the unthinkable.  As guilty as Judas, he had betrayed Jesus, and now Jesus reminds Peter of the content, the setting, and the number of Peter’s betrayals.  The content – Matthew tells us in 26.33 that Jesus had promised Jesus that “though all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”  So Jesus asks, “Simon, do you love me more than these” (meaning, I think, do you love me more than the other disciples love me)?  In other words, you once claimed to love me more than others, do you still make such a brash, bold, confident claim?  Remember what you did Peter?  The setting – Mark, Luke and John tell us that Peter’s betrayal took place while he was warming himself by a fire.  Here in John 21 Jesus has made a fire.  Remember what you did Peter?  The number – three times Jesus asks, “Do you love me?”  Why three times?  Isn’t it because there were denials?  At the third question (v. 17) John tells us that Peter was “hurt.”  This is the first time we ever hear that Peter is hurt.  The brash, the bold, the confident, the one walked on water before he sank, the one who proclaimed “I say you are the Christ” just before Jesus said “Get behind me Satan.”  Jesus reminds Peter of who he is and what he’s done.  He sticks the knife in and turns it.  Is this cruel?  NO!  It’s love.  Unless he remembers he cannot repent.  Unless he remembers he cannot be restored.  Unless he remembers he cannot lead.   And so in the presence of the other disciples (an important details here) so they would know, Jesus restores to Peter his status as the rock, the apostle who would help build the church, the leader who preach at Pentecost.  Jesus reminds Peter of the content, the setting and the number of his denial in order to say to Peter, “You have failed, now lead.  You have failed, now feed.”

Demand:  The Love of God makes this demand, “Feed my Sheep”. Of all the images Jesus could have drawn on to instruct and inspire Peter, he chose that of a shepherd—not a rock, not a missionary, but a shepherd.  Why?  Some researchers say sheep are the animals least likely to acknowledge their caregiver.  They are indifferent to the shepherd.  Aren’t we all like sheep?  Often oblivious to the extent to which God goes to provide for us, protect us and care for us?  But he loves us.  Oh how he loves us.  And that love demands that we in turn love others, care for them, and protect them—regardless of their acknowledgment of or appreciation for our efforts.  Three times Jesus asks the question, “Do you love me”, and three times Jesus makes the statement, “if you love me, you will feed my sheep”.  There is an undeniable connection between the love of God and the mission of God.  The implication is if you love, you will feed.  Because you have been loved, you will love.

John 14:15&21

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

God’s love brings restoration and mission.  We engage in the mission not to win God’s love, but because Christ has won it for us already by his death and resurrection.  Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for a friend.  Jesus laid down his life for us.  He called Peter to lay down his life …

In John 21:18-19, Jesus says to Peter, “When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”

Stretch out your hands … this is a euphemism for crucifixion.  Peter was to follow to the point of martyrdom, and tradition suggests that he did.  Are we are called to love in any less drastic a manner?

God’s love accepts us as we are and demands that we be transformed.  He is that kind of God.  Aslan is not a tame lion, but he is good.

From the wedding to the well, from the tomb to the upper room, from the cradle to the cross …God is present, patient and prophetic in the way that he loves.  Let us now love as we have been loved.

I have two points of interest for those of you who read this as you stuff yourself full with turkey, stuffing, gravy, football, and family.

1) The other night I sat in a restaurant with a homeless man, Burger King to be specific, as we got his meal for the night. We were chatting, and he asked when I was going home. This is one of my favorite topics to talk about right now seeing as time is winding down and I will see family and friends soon. I told him that I would be going home December 9th, and that I was extremely excited to go back. He replied, “That will be nice. A home. You know, you ain’t got nothing if you don’t have a home.” We won’t discuss materialism and how a ‘house’ or ‘home’ isn’t everything, but what he said struck a chord with me. Todd reminded me that I have so much to be thankful for: home, family, friends, food, money, a car, talents, community, love, and Christ! Because we live in a materially blessed society, we forget how blessed we are to have everything! We are but stewards with the gifts that God has given us! We can invest them eternally or we can hoard them as the things we have earned. Today, if you have a home, food on your table, and a family to eat with, consider yourself blessed. Use your gifts and blessings to bless others! The best gifts are those that cost you something; give beyond what is easy and do so gladly! Even after giving, you are blessed, and you have blessed someone else who may be far more excited than you thought, simply because they have had a meal at Burger King or now have a warm hat for cold nights. Challenge yourself in your giving, in your charity.

Also, when you find yourself comparing the things you have to be thankful for to the things others have, stop. Start with a blank page, and list the things you have been blessed with and the things you are thankful for. When you’ve finished your list, no matter how long or short it is, remember that you started with a blank page. God blesses us all in different ways and we should be genuinely thankful for the things we have, whether in great or small amounts when compared with others. We all started from nothing, and as cliche as it is, what we have is much more than nothing.

2) Also, today is Thanksgiving if I haven’t already said that. It is no different than any other day here in London. And it’s a celebrated holiday in the States. Being in a place where I want to celebrate and be thankful to God for my gifts, possessions, relationships, and blessings, but where Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated has challenged me.

If I’m celebrating Thanksgiving in my heart today (and later with a community of Americans), in a place where the holiday that creates this feeling is not instituted, why should we only feel these things on a certain day? Follow me, here (as I attempt to create a helpful analogy).

Thanksgiving is to the US, as a normal day is to the UK (the world.)

Let’s make being thankful an everyday part of life. Be thankful for the big things that surprise you, and be thankful for the little things that may bring a smile to your face. Any normal day can be and is a perfect day to have thanksgiving in your heart.

This Thanksgiving, enjoy your turkey, football, family, and can shaped cranberry sauce.

But in all things, and all circumstance, give thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving from London,

TF

Broken heart with busted seams

Tears flow into the dirt

Each drop a wound, a hurt

She looks at her body with disgust

She thinks, “There is no man whom I can trust”

Hands closed, eyes closed, heart closed

That’s how you’ll get through

Community is a choice, just one she never knew

Oh she’s got company all right

Her demons taunt her throughout the night

She sees people everyday

At the price of giving her body away

People will glance upon her with pity

But in the end no one is there for those long cold nights in the city

Memories cover her skin

On her knees she begs for the nightmares to end

Raped by her father

Beat by her mother

Abused and used one after the other

That dirty bottle of alcohol won’t heal

And the drugs don’t mean the memories aren’t real

Scars run up her arm

To feel anything she would self-harm

Those scars, they tell a story

They tell the story of a girl who felt alone

They tell the story of a girl who never had a home

Her bruises tell a story as well

With each bruise a tear from the angels fell

They tell her she is worthless

They tell her she is without purpose

But one day a man came and taught her love

She thought he was a buyer

But he told her, her beauty was something to respect and admire

She thought maybe it was money he would steal

But instead it was her heart he came to heal

He gave her new dreams

And sewed up her busted seams

He gave her a home, he gave her a family

He gave her purpose, he gave her destiny

She saw healing burst forth out of the earth

She saw beauty grow out of her dirt

She looks at her body with new eyes

She thinks, “I have been made his bride”

Hands open, eyes open, heart open

That’s what hope taught her to do

Freedom had always been there, she just never knew

He taught her love was free, but she owed it her all

He taught her that love comes for each one of us, and it comes for us all

Listen on the street corners for you may just hear a Lover’s call

-Anneleyce Alexander